1998 Rejects Touring Car Championship season

The 1998 Rejects Touring Car Championship season was the inaugural season of the RTCC, featuring cars used in the British Touring Car Championhip from the same year. The series was formed by a breakaway group from the BTCC, with shady German businessman Hermann Mann at the helm. Hermann is also known for being the driving force behind the 1989 F1 Team Onyx, holding lavish parties (with plenty of Jagermeister) and having the same name as successful F1RWRS drivers Douglas and Pippa Mann. The series was to visit tracks across Europe and Australia, with non-championship 24 hour race at the Manx TT and a Touring Rockingham 200 endurance race. However, the series collapsed after just four races into the season when Mann was arrested due to various drug and bribery charges (the latter apparently to cover-up and allow the then WMSC-suspended Robert Anderson to race).

Entry List

Team	Constructor	Manufacturer	#	Driver	Class	Rounds
RMcG Motorsports	RCMG	Honda Accord	2	Rory McGatley	I	1
			02	Rck Tyryn	I	1
Greggs Prism Motorsports	Prism	Nissan Primera	4	Mike Burns	C	1
			5	Robbie Thorne	C	1
Zakspeed	Zakspeed	Volvo S40	6	Uwe Alzen	I	1
			7	Klaus Ludwig	I	1
			9	Michael Bartels	I	1
Martini Nissan Racing	Nissan	Nissan Primera	8	John Cleland	M	1
			28	Fabrizio Giovanardi	M	1
			29	Rickard Rydell	M	1
Kickert Motorsport Engineering	Kickert	Vauxhall Vectra	16	Pieter Kickert	I	1
		Holden Vectra	31	John Zimmer	I	1
Equipe de Course Belge Peugeot	ECB	Peugeot 406	25	Thomas De Bock	C	1
			26	Aurelien Moll	C	1
Twinings Earl Grey Renault Racing	Renault	Renault Laguna	27	Percival Carrington-Smythe	M	1
			30	Paul Jenkins	M	1
REDECARD Astral Motorsport	Astral	Volvo S40	35	Kieran Sutherland	I	1
			36	Catalin Gheorghiu	I	1
Team Wales	Welsh	Honda Accord	37	Hywel Jones	I	1
			38	Robert Anderson	I	1
The Good Will Out (Race You)	TGWORY	Volvo S40	45	Richie White	I	1
			46	Florence Biggs	I	1
Sweetcorn Motorsport	Sweetcorn	Nissan Primera	65	Garry Jones	I	1
Taiwan Motorsport	Taiwan	Volvo S40	78	Yuen-Ching Leung	I	1
Touring Auto Racing Team	Manx T.A.R.T.	Peugeot 406	88	Martin McFry	I	1
		Renault Laguna	89	Douglas Mann	I	1
		Vauxhall Vectra	888	Ben Fleet	I	1
Audi Team Phoenix	Phoenix	Audi A4	90	Jody Radcliffe	M	1
			94	Rafael Modena	M	1
			95	Theo Lutz	M	1
Nurminen Engineering	Nurminen	Volvo S40	91	Nathan Nurmester	I	1
			92	Nikolai Nurmovitsch	I	1
Norwich Union Team Ultimate	Ultimate	Ford Mondeo	97	Michael Prost	C	1
			98	Cave Johnson	C	1
		BMW	99	Rob Collard	I	1

Icon	Class
M	Manufacturer
C	Constructor
I	Independent

Teams and Drivers

Out of the 9 Marques avaialable, only 3 marques fielded works teams. Audi, on the back of a successful 1997 BTCC season, entered the RTCC with their non-4WD A4, the team being run by Spanish squad Phoenix Motorsports. Theo Lutz, Rafael Modena and Jody Radcliffe were signed for the drives. Racing conglomerate Il Barone Rampante attracted works status from Nissan, the team trading under the name Martini Nissan Racing, hiring BTCC champion John Cleland, young Italian Fabrizio Giovanardi, and the talented Rickard Rydell. Renault announced they would be represented in the RTCC by Twinings Earl Grey Racing, the cars decked out in the black and cream corporate colours of Twinings Tea. Englishman Percival "Porky" Carrington-Smythe attracted some controversy by establishing his seat in the upstart squad with hefty Twinings Sponsorship money. Porky, as he is jokingly known in the club racing community, claimed that he was not as slow as he might seem and was not going to be a touring car version of hapless Swissman Jean-Denis Deletraz. Twinings also secured the services of promising Englishman Paul Jenkins. Despite being hailed as 'the next big thing in Touring Cars', doubt has been cast over him after a series of under-par performances and several write-off crashes.

Of the 3 Constructors, Equipe de Course Belge looked promising, acheiving semi-works status from Peugeot and attracting several Belgian sponsors, notably telecoms supplier Belgacom. Belgians Aurelien Moll and Thomas De Bock were signed to drive for the Belgian outfit, with the team proudly stating that they would be "Racing for Belgium". English team Prism Motorsports announced that they would be receiving some support from Nissan. Prism, with Title sponsorship from Greggs and the services of Englishmen Mike Burns and Robbie Thorne. Team Ultimate, fielding two Ford Mondeos for French-German Michael Prost and American Cave Johnson, managed to attract big-name sponsorship to the series with the presence of insurance firm Norwich Union and looked confident for the year ahead.

Season

Testing

#	Track	Date	Fastest driver	Fastest team	Car	Class
1	Silverstone	12th April 1998	/ Michael Prost	Team Ultimate	Ford Mondeo	C
2	Oulton Park	14th May 1998	Rob Collard	Team Ultimate	Ford Mondeo	C

Races

Round	Track	Race	Pole position	Fastest lap	Winning driver	Winning team	Class
1	Silverstone Circuit	1	Cave Johnson	Robert Anderson	/ Michael Prost	Team Ultimate	C
		2	Robbie Thorne	Robbie Thorne	Fabrizio Giovanardi	Martini Nissan Racing	M
2	Donington Park	1	Mike Burns	Garry Jones	Garry Jones	Sweetcorn Motorsports	I
		2	/ Michael Prost	Fabrizio Giovanardi	Fabrizio Giovanardi	Martini Nissan Racing	M
3	Castle Combe Circuit	1	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED
		2	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED
4	Rockingham Motor Speedway	1	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED
		2	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED
5	Circuit Park Zandvoort	1	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED
		2	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED
6	Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari	1	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED
		2	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED
7	Hockenheimring	1	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED
		2	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED
8	Norisring	1	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED
		2	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED
9	Oulton Park	1	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED
		2	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED
10	Snetterton Motor Racing Circuit	1	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED
		2	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED
11	Thruxton Circuit	1	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED
		2	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED
12	Croft Circuit	1	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED
		2	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED
13	Mallory Park	1	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED
		2	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED
14	Autodromo Nazionale Monza	1	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED
		2	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED
15	Brands Hatch	1	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED
		2	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED
16	Birmingham Superprix	1	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED
		2	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED
17	Oran Park Raceway	1	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED
		2	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED
NC 1	1st Isle Of Man Touring 24hours TT	1	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED
NC 2	Inaugral Rockingham Touring TwoHundred	1	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED	CANCELLED

Standings

Points System

Position	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
Points	25	20	16	14	12	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1

Drivers Championship Standings

Pos. Driver SIL DON CAS ROC ZAN IMO HOC NOR OUL SNE THR MAL MON BHA SUP ORA Pts 1 Michael Prost 1 4 23 3 55 2 Cave Johnson 2 2 30 4 54 3 Fabrizio Giovanardi 17 1 18 1 50 4 Ben Fleet 3 3 21 5 44 5 John Zimmer 8 13 24 2 33 6 Robbie Thorne 5 8 5 23 32 7 Rob Collard 7 5 7 17 30 8 Garry Jones 18 14 1 20 27 9 Catalin Gheorghiu 19 20 6 6 20 = Michael Bartels Ret 24 2 24 20 11 Jody Radcliffe 6 19 8 26 18 12 Aurelien Moll 23 9 7 13 Thomas De Bock 9 25 7 14 Robert Anderson 25 10 6 15 Rafael Modena RET 11 5 16 Martin McFry 12 30 4 17 Mike Burns 21 12 3 18 Nathan Nurmester 13 35 3 19 Garry Jones 18 14 2 21 Nikolai Nurmovitsch 14 32 2 22 Rickard Rydell 15 17 1 Teams Championship Standings Pos. Team Class Make SIL DON CAS ROC ZAN IMO HOC NOR OUL SNE THR MAL MON BHA SUP ORA Pts 1 Team Ultimate C Ford Mondeo 2 2 100 1 4 BMW 320i 7 5 2 Touring Auto Racing Team I Vauxhall Vectra 3 3 36 12 30 22 26 3 Martini Nissan Racing M Nissan Primera 17 1 26 15 17 20 27 4 Prism Motorsports I Nissan Primera 5 8 23 21 12 5 Team Wales I Honda Accord 4 15 21 25 10 6 Audi Team Phoenix M Audi A4 6 19 15 RET 11 RET 23